Central Freeway Work Should Start, Finish Early / Funding for project nearly all in place

Edward Epstein, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published 4:00 am, Friday, February 20, 1998

1998-02-20 04:00:00 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- With funding and design work proceeding better than expected, work on replacing San Francisco's Central Freeway should start by this September, 11 months ahead of the most optimistic predictions.

After San Francisco voters last November approved Proposition H, a measure calling for retrofitting the busy half-mile-long roadway from Mission Street to the Oak and Fell Street ramps, work began lining up the $67.6 million needed for the project.

Some predicted it would be an uphill struggle. Instead, it has gone quickly.

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"The funding will all be put together by the end of March," said state Senator Quentin Kopp, the San Francisco independent who was a leader of the Yes on Proposition H campaign. As chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, Kopp has taken a lead role in seeking funds for the project.

Caltrans has endorsed a package of $57.35 million in funding for the freeway, whose existing single- deck structure would be retrofitted and widened to accommodate two-way traffic.

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The funding, under the State Highway Operation and Protection Program, will come in three parts: $53.58 million will go to repair the seismically subpar roadway, $2.4 million for demolition work and $1.37 million for help in dealing with traffic during the three-year project.

In addition to the state funds, the Central Freeway is eligible for $17 million in federal earthquake relief funds that the city still has on tap from the 1989 Loma Prieta quake.

The environmental impact review on the project is being reviewed by federal officials. They are expected to give it quick approval, since the project stays within the physical boundaries of Caltrans-owned land, even though the roadway will be widened to accommodate two lanes of traffic in each direction.

As part of the project, a new Oak Street on-ramp will be built.

"Everything just fell into place," said Caltrans spokesman Jeff Weiss. "That's why we're able to do it early."

In a letter to Mayor Willie Brown, Caltrans district director Harry Yahata said his review of the project shows that completion by October 2001 is feasible.

Weiss said the freeway will be closed to all traffic for only a short time during the construction. But lane closures, which could produce backups, will be common.

That's why the state is providing traffic mitigation funding, which will help Caltrans and the city deal with traffic forced onto city streets.

Similar measures were put in place for a few months after the two-level freeway closed for the demolition of its upper deck in August 1996.

That closure, and the closing of the Oak Street on-ramp, led to a buildup of traffic South of Market and in other parts of the city. That contributed to voter anger over the long delay in coming up with a replacement for the freeway that had been damaged in the 1989 quake.

Proposition H, which ordered the city to make the retrofitting its preferred alternative and to get it built, passed last November with 53 percent of the vote.